Poorly Male!

[andyw823]

My male has lived in his 6.6 gallon tank now for around 5 months, the tank is heated/filterd, cycled and all water stats are fine. This week i added 3 Khuli loaches, a live plant and some slate for the loaches to hide under, but now my male isn`t very well. He rests on the bottom all the time, although he does go up for air. He has rapid guill movement, and ih flicking against the substraight. There is no sign of any parasites on the fish although his fins do look a bit tatty. What have i done wrong Could it be the slate? it was from the garden but i did soke it in bolling water. Any help is good help!!

 

[BettaBum873]

first of all 6.6 gallons is way to small for 3 khuli loaches, they get 3+ inches each. If you go but the inch of fish per gallon rule you now have about 12 inches of fish in 6.6. Your betta is probably stressed from all of the changes. Also if hes flicking he may have velvet. Turn off all lights at night so the room is completely dark and then look at him with a flashlight, if you see what looks like fine gold dust on him than he has velvet, which is fairly easy to treat, some salt and meds you can get from your lfs. Hope this helped!

 

[ILM]

Could be a number of things. Adding the new fish might have stressed him out since he's used to having the place all to himself--and stress is bad. Or one of the new fish might have brought in parasites or fungus or something (you did quarantine them for 2 weeks before adding to your tank?). Since you got the slate from the yard, it may still have stuff in/on it like pesticides, fertilizers, fungus, etc. that gets into the rock pores (which is why it is highly recommended you do not use rocks or wood outside because it hasn't been correctly cleaned for fish use). I'd take the betta out of the tank immediately and put him into clean water. Hopefully he will recover.

 

[andyw823]

Could be a number of things. Adding the new fish might have stressed him out since he's used to having the place all to himself--and stress is bad. Or one of the new fish might have brought in parasites or fungus or something (you did quarantine them for 2 weeks before adding to your tank?). Since you got the slate from the yard, it may still have stuff in/on it like pesticides, fertilizers, fungus, etc. that gets into the rock pores (which is why it is highly recommended you do not use rocks or wood outside because it hasn't been correctly cleaned for fish use). I'd take the betta out of the tank immediately and put him into clean water. Hopefully he will recover.

Will taking him out stress him even more? I do have a large flowting net which i could put in community tank but if he is infected then he will harm the other fish. Is that correct? i will take the slate out right away and do a water change. if he does need to go in his own bowl how do i heat it as i have no spare heater!

 

[WILDER]

Sounds like to me that the new fish added have fetched a parasite into the tank, check the gill area.

 

[liz2]

If it was me I would clean the tank out remove the loaches and take them back to your lfs and leave the betta by himself!